Premier Travel's Steve Cox: 'I fell into travel 33 years ago – I wanted to be a policeman!'

Remarkably, given his evident grasp of the industry and aptitude for selling travel, it was far from his first choice of career. “I completely fell into it,” he reveals. “I started at Premier after my A-Levels. At that point, I really wanted to be a policeman.

“Back then, the police said applicants needed to have some worldly knowledge, so my aim was to spend some time in travel before training. I didn’t see travel as a full-time career.”

However, by his own admission, Cox questions whether he would have been cut out for the physical rigours of policing. And his head was quickly turned.

"As soon as I got into travel, I found I was pretty decent at selling – it was a completely new environment for me, but everyone put me at ease.”

Cox made a booking on his first day at Premier Travel’s Cambridge branch when a professor came into the shop wanting to go to Tunisia alone.

Perhaps due to the sheer volume of sales he has done since, Cox can’t remember much about the booking other than he booked the professor into a Thomson hotel.

“It was fairly easy back then," he recalls. "When people came into the shop, they often booked. I don’t remember feeling nervous."

Reflecting on how travel has changed since those days when customers would come in to make enquiries in person and rarely left without making a booking, Cox smiles. “It’s still work hard, play hard," he says.

Bonding with the board

Understandably, Cox’s bond with Premier’s senior team runs deep. Cox reveals that when he was told of his promotion to the board, managing directors Paul and Niki Waters and co-owners Renford Sargent and Peter Andrews started by inviting him into the boardroom for a glass of fizz.

They then delivered the news he had been waiting to hear for years. “I was buzzing to be honest," says Cox. "I’ve always had that desire to go higher.”

Premier Travel recently held its annual long service dinner at Cambridge University’s Trinity Hall, which was attended by 75 people – including some retirees.

"The dinner is one of my favourite nights of the year,” Cox says, adding: “It’s a great event. They recognise different milestones in the business – 10, 15, 25 and 30 years. Some of the retirees had worked here for 40 years."

So is Cox ready to pass on some wisdom of his own? “I’ve worked with some fantastic people,” Cox beams, recalling the moment when now-managing director Paul Waters came into the business as a “fairly young” branch manager.

“He’s now done 21 years with Premier Travel,” Cox continues. “I’ve always been part of the management team with Paul.”

However, Cox admits: “I probably do not see the younger recruits as much as I did. There has been an open-door policy at the company.

"Staff will always get in touch – and we will always listen as it is about the wider team. We’ve got around 120 staff – I know most of them.”

Another person linked to Premier Travel who Cox has known for the past two decades is one of his customers. “He books at least four or five trips with me a year,” Cox reveals. “He’s a multi-millionaire – one of our top customers.”

Nonetheless, the unnamed customer still prefers to make his initial enquiry through the Huntingdon branch where Cox began his travel career. “The customer is still loyal to the Huntingdon branch. We’ve got some regional clients who keep coming back because we go that extra mile.

“We will deliver tickets and we’re contactable at all times. It’s so much easier for customers to get in contact with us, but it’s [the job] harder for staff. We’ve always been contactable, but it has gone to a completely different level since Covid. Service and pricing is key to customers."